Bishop: Westminster parking charges are bad news for churches

The Bishop of London pleaded with Westminster council to address the "very genuine fears" of people opposed to its Sunday and evening parking charges.

The Rt Rev Richard Chartres warned the council of his alarm that plans to charge for parking on single yellow lines on Sundays would badly affect churches and pastoral work in the area.

From January the council plans to charge for parking until midnight six days a week and between 1pm and 6pm on Sundays.

In a letter to the Tory council, the bishop wrote: "I have a pastoral concern that whatever its intention, as it is presently formulated, the legislation will be detrimental to the parishioners who have met Sunday by Sunday in our parish churches for hundreds of years.

"As you know, the 1994 Sunday Trading Act was formulated to protect those who wished to attend worship, and the last figures I saw for Westminster showed that about 15,000 attend churches of all denominations on a Sunday.

"I do hope that some imaginative compromise can be agreed with the local churches that will allay their very genuine fears that the council's actions will prove a strong disincentive for those wishing to attend their central London churches - those very churches which contribute so much to the stability, sense of history and pastoral care of the community they serve."

After receiving the bishop's letter, the council modified its plans by announcing that Sunday charging would begin at 1pm rather than midday in the hope that this would allow people driving to 11am services to remain unaffected.

Baroness Neuberger, senior rabbi to the West London Synagogue near Marble Arch, is also critical of the plans, as are business leaders such as Topshop boss Sir Philip Green, "Queen of Shops" Mary Portas and the Prime Minister's business adviser Lord Young of Graffham.

Today the Diocese of London's PR firm declined to comment. Churches across Westminster have joined together to protest at the plan.